Q&A: Cats coordinators after open spring practice

On how Ryan Timmons is doing this spring: “We've moved him around a little bit, so he's playing our Y position and our X position. We did that just in the last two practices, so his head was kind of going all over the place. But I love the way he came out and learned and doing the two positions, he's got to learn a lot. That'll get him on the field more. I really like where he's at right now and he's coming out and competing and learning every day, so I'm fired up about him.”

On the advantage of seeing players perform in front of a crowd: “Well, that's what we did. We installed Day 4 today, but we only did Days 1, 2 and 3 in terms of what we called. We just wanted to say, hey, do what you know right now, let's see what happens. We're in the stadium, you got some people out here, that was fun, it's tackle, and so when the bullets were flying, how do you react? That's all I was looking for. So when we watch the film we're gonna look for technique, we're gonna look alignment, we're gonna look for assignment, and then we're gonna look for effort. We want to see how far we've come from there, the execution part. And on third down, did we convert? How was the red zone? All those situational stuff that we can talk about and learn from.”

On if the quarterbacks are picking up what he wants them to learn: “I think they're learning it. They're still a little bit – you know, it's a new system. But I think they're going to the right places. We got to make sure that we're throwing it to the right guy and then run it when they've got to run it. We always talk about every possession ends with a kick. It's got to be a PAT, it's got to be a field goal, but we reserve the right to punt. That's how you keep your team in the game. So I was proud of that. We had one turnover and it was the threes. He caught the ball, big play and then he got stripped. So great job by the defense, but we can't have any turnovers. I was glad that we only have one.”

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On C.J. Conrad's usefulness in the red zone: “That's what he brings to the table. Matched him up out there with a linebacker and ran a corner route, and that's what you want to do. You hope you can win those battles more often than not, so that was really good. It's nice that you don't have to change personnel and you can split him out, and so that's what we did right there and I think that's gonna serve useful, even with Greg (Hart) as the other one, in being able to spread people out in 12 personnel.”

On if he feels the offense is starting to take on his personality: “I hope so. We want to be really physical. We want to run the ball first. That's what we're gonna do. You run the ball well and then you've got a chance to open things up in the passing game. I hope they do. I'm excited. I love this game, I love what I do, and I hope they sense that. They love the game. They've been hungry and they've shown it in practice. There was a real chance they could've come and had a letdown. We had a pretty good practice on Thursday, and they matched the intensity. That's what I was excited about.”

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR D.J. ELIOT

Opening statement: “"For the first scrimmage, I thought that our twos did a good job, which those guys, you’ve got to have depth. Nobody’s earned a job, so maybe some of those guys will get into the starting lineup. They did a good job in this scrimmage. Played well, didn’t give any points up, won a lot of third down battles, played the run well. But our ones struggled in the run game and we’ve got to get that better. Maybe we need to get different personnel in there at times. We’ve got to figure out going into next year, who are going to be the right guys to play physical and stop the run. We’ve got a lot of spring left to get better at that. We played a lot of base today. We only ran one, maybe two defensive calls, didn’t blitz, just played base, wanted the guys to play technique and you have to have a good base defense to be successful. So that was the emphasis today: Playing fundamentals. And there’s plenty of things we need to get better at. I’m looking forward to finishing out in the spring and adding to our defense and doing different things, but we need to make sure we’re always playing with fundamentals. What questions you got?”

On if winter workouts helped players physically: “Physically speaking after winter workouts, yes. I think they had a good winter program and I thought that they had good effort and intensity to the winter workouts.”

On if they’re physically ready for spring: “Still physically speaking? Yes. Yes, I think they are. Yes, they are.”

On what De’Niro Laster adds to the defense: “Adds to the defense? I think he’s athletic. He’s an outside backer who’s played inside backer. So most of our outside backers on our team are defensive ends we’ve converted to outside linebacker, but De’Niro was an inside backer that we’ve converted to outside backer. So he has the ability to cover well. He has the ability to play in space, which is important at that position.”

On Josh Allen showing flashes off the edge: “Yeah. Josh Allen, yeah. He’s good. For how long he is, he’s fast. He can come off the edge and do some good things.”

On Kash Daniel’s progress: “I think Kash is progressing well. He’s going to the prom here soon, so that’s what age he is, but I think for his first spring, he’s progressed well. He’s very hungry to learn.”